Waiting on Wednesday #43

Hey everyone and welcome back (or to!) my blog! I'm Genni, and today I'll be participating in Waiting on Wednesday. WoW was hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine. Every week we showcase an upcoming release we are excited about. Jill hasn't been posting for quite some time, so Tressa @ Wishful Endings has adopted and renamed WoW to Can't Wait Wednesday.

This week, my pick is Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff!

Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion?

Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha's past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.

With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heros will fall, and hearts will be broken.

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The Longest Book Tag!

I was tagged by Lys from The Mad Reader to do this tag!! Thanks so much Lys. :) Lys is a super cool blogger! She's actually a French blogger, and one of the first books she read in English was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! Isn't that cool?

The Rules:

1. Make a list of the five longest books you've ever read.

2. Select two of the longest books on your TBR.

3. Discuss.

4. Tag others

Longest Books I've Read

 

Winter (Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer

Pages: 827

City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6) by Cassandra Clare

Pages: 726

Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

Pages:672

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

Pages: 608

The Winter King (Weahtermages of Mystral #1) by C.L. Wilson  

Pages: 595

All right! Here are some pretty long books! And funny thing is, I gave all of these 4.5 stars or higher. All of these are fantasy/sci fi as well, which doesn't surprise me. With contemporary books, there isn't as much need for world-building like there is in fantasy/sci-fi. All of these books have such an intricate plot, and I love them to bits. I don't know which one is my favorite, though. Winter is the last book in one of my favorite series, The Lunar Chronicles. City of Heavenly Fire is the last book in The Mortal Instruments, which was a series that improved with every book. Gemina is the sequel to Illuminae, and both of those are fantastic and ooze with originality. And The Winter King is the first book in an adult fantasy series. The second book wasn't going to be published, and now it is, and I cannot be happier. Out of all of these, I only own Winter and Illuminae! The rest are definitely on my list to buy!

BOOK REVIEW | P.S. I Like You by Kasie West

Title: P.S. I Like You
Author: Kasie West
Series? No, a standalone
Pages: 330
Publication Date: July 26, 2016
Publisher: Point Publishing
Source: I checked out P.S. I Like You from my local library!

Signed, sealed, delivered…

While spacing out in chemistry class, Lily scribbles some of her favorite song lyrics onto her desk. The next day, she finds that someone has continued the lyrics on the desk and added a message to her. Intrigue!

Soon, Lily and her anonymous pen pal are exchanging full-on letters—sharing secrets, recommending bands, and opening up to each other. Lily realizes she’s kind of falling for this letter writer. Only, who is he? As Lily attempts to unravel the mystery and juggle school, friends, crushes, and her crazy family, she discovers that matters of the heart can’t always be spelled out…

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Mini Movie Reviews (Documentary Edition) | Black Fish, Tower, Love Between the Covers

Hey everyone and welcome back (or to!) my blog! I'm Genni, and today I'll be reviewing some documentaries I've recently seen! I actually watched these all on Netflix (which I adore). Keep in mind that I live in the US though, so the movies might not be available where you are necessarily.

**I'd like to preface this by saying that these reviews are quite longer than my normal mini reviews. If you're new here, don't worry! They're not always this long. I just didn't have the heart to cut a lot, considering that they're all about such important subject matters. **

Blackfish
Release Date: July 19, 2013
Run Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Rating: PG-13

I decided to watch Blackfish out of the blue, and I am so glad I did. Before watching Blackfish, I had actually heard a lot about it. The incidents were brought up often enough on the news that it became a movie that I knew I had to watch sometime. Thank goodness sometime actually came, because I absolutely loved this movie. Blackfish tells the tale of Tilikum, a captive killer whale at Seaworld. Tilikum is a pretty infamous killer whale that received national attention after killing Dawn Brancheau, one of the best trainers (if not the best) at Seaworld. I thought this movie did a wonderful job at exposing Seaworld and the horrific things that have happened because of their policies. Watching this was hard to watch at times, because it was so heartbreaking.

Tilikum was captured in 1983 when he was two, and spent his whole life in captivity until his death earlier this year. I felt such sympathy for Tilikum throughout the film. If you didn't know, orca whales are highly intelligent creatures, and keeping them whales in captivity for their whole lives provide serious consequences. If you were kept in a house your whole life with no way to get out and having to preform for people, you'd go crazy too.  Their lives are shortened dramatically (up to 20 years!), they are separated from their families, and they are put into tight quarters that can easily lead to whales getting stir crazy and hurting each other. Tilikum himself was known to be aggressive, and had actually caused two deaths before Brancheau's. And yet, he was still held in captivity (in his own separate pool away from any interaction with orcas), he still performed at Seaworld (even after causing three deaths), and his sperm was still used to make more orcas for captivity, some of which have had their own issues with attacking people.

This film really made me feel sick to my stomach. So many times the consumer is oblivious to what happens behind the screen, or turns a blind eye. Black Fish sheds a light on some of the atrocities that have happened at Seaworld, and the horrible conditions that orcas have been put under. While Seaworld has defended themselves by saying they release and rehabilitate a lot of sea life, they should focus on also taking care of the animals they use for profit. This was so eyeopening, and I highly encourage you to see this, even if there are no Seaworld near you at all.

I give Blackfish an A+. Just writing this made me want to watch it again.

Waiting on Wednesday #42

Hey everyone and welcome back (or to!) my blog! I'm Genni, and today I'll be participating in Waiting on Wednesday. WoW was hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine. Every week we showcase an upcoming release we are excited about. Jill hasn't been posting for quite some time, so Tressa @ Wishful Endings has adopted and renamed WoW to Can't Wait Wednesday.

My pick for this week An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson!

Isobel is a prodigy portrait artist with a dangerous set of clients: the sinister fair folk, immortal creatures who cannot bake bread, weave cloth, or put a pen to paper without crumbling to dust. They crave human Craft with a terrible thirst, and Isobel’s paintings are highly prized among them. But when she receives her first royal patron—Rook, the autumn prince—she makes a terrible mistake. She paints mortal sorrow in his eyes – a weakness that could cost him his life.

Furious and devastated, Rook spirits her away to the autumnlands to stand trial for her crime. Waylaid by the Wild Hunt’s ghostly hounds, the tainted influence of the Alder King, and hideous monsters risen from barrow mounds, Isobel and Rook depend on one another for survival. Their alliance blossoms into trust, then love, violating the fair folks’ ruthless Good Law. There's only one way to save both their lives, Isobel must drink from the Green Well, whose water will transform her into a fair one—at the cost of her Craft, for immortality is as stagnant as it is timeless.

Isobel has a choice: she can sacrifice her art for a future, or arm herself with paint and canvas against the ancient power of the fairy courts. Because secretly, her Craft represents a threat the fair folk have never faced in all the millennia of their unchanging lives: for the first time, her portraits have the power to make them feel.

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Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Required Reading

Hey everyone and welcome back (or to!) my blog! I'm Genni, and today I'll be participating in Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today our topic is anything school related, so I decided to highlight my favorite required reading. I've had a mixed bag with required reads. I hate being forced to read something that I'm not in the mood for, and sometimes I just want to read instead of analyze and those lines are definitely blurred when it comes to school.

My schedule at college is pretty reading-heavy (I'm taking three English classes, a gender studies class, a Spanish class, and a philosophy class), so I'm sure that this list will be different by the end of the year! I am planning on being an English major, so I'm not doing any science or math heavy classes anytime soon.

Nevertheless, here are my top nine books I've had to read for school!


9) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I thought this book was..fine. There wasn't anything that I really liked about it, but not anything I minded either. It was a solid three star read, and I completely understand why it's a required reading in a lot of schools. The symbolism of the green light, the morally gray characters, the American dream, all of it!

8) The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Now this is a required reading that I really liked, but probably shouldn't have read at such a young age. I read this in seventh grade (when I was 12) and though I liked it, I think I was too young to really grasp the importance of everything that was happening. Plus, I was spoiled. So when characters died, I wasn't all that fazed by it.

BOOK REVIEW | The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Title: The Wrath and the Dawn
Author: Renee Ahdieh
Series? Yes, a duology
Pages: My edition has 432 pages
Publication Date: May 12, 2015
Publisher: Speak (under Penguin Books)
Source: I bought this book at one of my local bookstores!

One Life to One Dawn.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.

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